Chess Ireland on the move: Ireland-on-Line is demanding backdated annual
subs of, well a lot, and
so I am belatedly doing what the rest of the country has already done and
going FREE. Only problem is that this will
necessitate a change of email address and of Chess Ireland URL.
I have arranged an alternative, temporary mirror site, at
http://homepage.eircom.net/~jghur/index.htm but may
also, with the assistance of a helpful regular reader, be moving
to a dedicated Chess Ireland URL. Anyway, if the regular
URL goes down suddenly - IOL cutting access - you'll know where to go.
I'll keep the site posted regarding dedicated URL developments.
Incidentally, for contact purposes,
if email to jghurley@iol.ie bounces, send instead to hurleyjohn@hotmail.com or jghur@eircom.net.
10/11/00

Follow the progress of the Irish teams at the biannual
Chess Olympiad, Istanbul, 28 Oct-13 Nov. Congratulations, 7/11/00: The
best net coverage yet of any
major international representative chess event.
The Istanbul organizers are providing live net coverage of
all games in java / pgn formats and a v.well designed site ... only let-down as
Kieran English pointed out to me the other day is the lack of FIDE ratings.
The Irish men have had a mixed time but may hopefully end with a high this weekend after
Thursday's 4-0 whitewash of Albania.
The women
have had a few weak results after an excellent middle phase of the tournament. According to Mark Orr,
Debbie Quinn is guaranteed a FIDE rating given her fine performance so far.
The team (Men: 1. GM Alexander Baburin, 2. IM-elect Mark Quinn, 3. IM Mark Heidenfeld,
4. FM Colm Daly, 5. IM Mark Orr, 6. Sam Collins; Women: 1. Suzanne Connolly, 2. Mairead Ni Siochru, 3. Debbie Quinn,
4. Elizabeth O'Shaughnessy) has
secured sponsorship towards the costs of participation
from international online hotel booking company,
All-Hotels.com.
Mark Orr will be providing a
daily log
from Istanbul
as will Colm Daly and
Alexander Baburin on the Irish
team's performance.
10/11/00

Sunday Tribune chess column, update: As advised last month, my weekly column
has fallen foul of the
Celtic Tiger. Rampant property advertising has taken over the section in
which the chess and bridge columns normally reside.
A short notice has appeared for the last five
weeks indicating that both columns are being held over
"due to lack of space". Despite initial assurances from the Tribune
that this was a temporary situation
that would be sorted out within a few weeks pending section redesigns / reformats, neither
myself nor Adam Mesbur, the bridge columnist,
have been given any indication as to when the two columns will be reappearing.
Needless to say, I am keen to continue contributing to the paper on chess, as Adam
is on bridge, and so have a modest proposal for readers. If those Chess Ireland regulars
who are also Tribune readers are interested
in the newspaper resurrecting the chess column sooner rather than later,
a postcard / letter to that effect to
Matt Cooper, The Editor, Sunday Tribune, Lr. Baggot St, Dublin 2, may well
help to expedite matters.
I will advise in advance if / when the column is due to reappear and re any other developments.
10/11/00

LCU league players will be pleased to see that Peter Scott has started a very promising looking site covering results in the six divisions of the
Leinster Chess leagues.
Check out Peter's
Chess League site.
10/11/00

Also check out two new online initiatives by GM Alexander Baburin,
Grandmaster Square, a gathering place
for grandmasters and a new forum for amateur players to contact GMs, and Chess Today,
a daily subscription-based online chess newspaper. See the links for full details.
10/11/00

I have had an appeal from Bray CC's 4NCL captain Haydn Barber whose job
of fielding a team in
the third / fourth rd 4NCL games in Birmingham on Nov 25/26 has been
complicated by the unfortunate overlap of this second weekend of 4NCL activity
and our own annual Kilkenny tournament. If there are any strong players, pats / expats
or others, who aren't going to Kilkenny
and who would like to play in Birmingham for Bray CC,
contact Haydn at hadix@attglobal.net.
7/11/00

Vladimir Kramnik is the new (unofficial) world champion after
defeating Gary Kasparov 8.5-6.5 in the
Braingames 16-game world
championship match in London. Check out the site for live
game coverage and commentary.
7/11/00

The annual Monarch Assurance Isle of Man international tournament ended recently with
GM Mark Hebden winning outright on
7.5/9 ahead of GMs Sherbakov (Rus) and Sutovsky (Isr) on 6.5/9.
Three Irish player participated. Mark Quinn scored 5.5/9, Keith Allen 4.5/9 and
both gained ELO points. John Nicholson scored 2.5/9.
Incidentally, Mark informed me recently that his FIDE
IM title should be ratified shortly as it appears likely that his FIDE rating
topped the required 2400 threshold during a tournament last year.
27/10/00

Attention collectors: Kevin O'Connell advises that his chess collection (4 tons = 4,000kg of autographs, books,magazines,
manuscripts, sets etc.) is coming up for auction at Phillips in London (and
live on the Internet) on 7 November. Details can be found here
or at the following mirror site.
27/10/00

Follow Bray's progress
in the
European Club Championships (Sep 23-30) where Paul Delaney, John Joyce, Tom Clarke, Haydn Barber, Cormac Brady and
Seamus Duffy represented the national club champions.
Board one Delaney got off to a good start with
a first round victory over 2584-rated Romanian grandmaster Nevednichy. Thereafter, the best performers were
John Joyce on board two (4/7) and Haydn Barber on board four (4.5/7). The team finished above their seeding, 28th of 34 teams.
9/10/00

A new chess club has started in Hillsborough, Co Down. Players in the
surrounding area are welcome (Lisburn, Dromore, Moira, Ballynahinch etc).
Meeting Tuesdays 7.30. For further details telephone Geoffrey Collins 028-92689654.
27/9/00

The Leinster Schools Chess Association will be starting
its 00/01 leagues in October. As usual the sections will be
Senior, Junior, Minor, Primary and Novice. For more information,
contact the secretary of the association, Audrey Carthy at 8377874 or the
president, Michael Hanley at 2882370.
27/9/00

Leinster Leagues, Divs 1-4 fixture lists now available (courtesy Tom O'Sullivan). 2000/2001 fixtures list (xls format - 112kb).
Completed fixtures lists for Divs 5, 6 and 7
have been delayed due to late responses from captains.
Play should begin in the week commencing 23 Oct in these divisions.
18/9/00

Olympiad selection postscript: On appeal, the ICU executive has decided
to amend the board order of the menís teams originally proposed by the ICU
selection sub-committee for the forthcoming chess Olympiad. The 1998/1999 Irish
champion, Colm Daly, has been promoted from board six to board four and the full
menís team in board order following the withdrawal of FM Paul Delaney is GM Alexander
Baburin, FM Mark Quinn, IM Mark Heidenfeld, FM Colm Daly, IM Mark Orr, Sam Collins.
Appeals by other players relating to both the menís and womenís selections were
rejected though in light of the controversy generated by both selections, it was
agreed that the ICU would seek to devise a more transparent and objectively-based
selection system for future representative events. The biennial Olympiad takes place
in Istanbul, Turkey from 27 October to 13 November.

The score of a five game match between GM Alexander Baburin
and Sam Collins played in late August was 3.5-1.5 in favour of the former
(three draws, two wins).
14/9/00

Aertel chess pages: Gerry Behan has kindly offered to take over these pages. If organizers would like to
advertise events on teletext, send information to Gerry at gpbehan@eircom.net.
14/9/00

The two Irish representatives at the West European Zonal
which took place recently in Spain began to find their feet in the later rounds of this
very strong, predominantly grandmaster, event. At the time of writing with a round
to play, Joe Ryan was on 4.5/10 (including a win over a 2500+ rated Spaniard) while
Daire McMahon was on 2/10.
Daire warmed
up for the Zonal with an impressive outing at the Lisbon Summer Chess Festival last month
where he scored 6.5/10
(tournament performance ELO 2380) behind winner Icelandic GM Hannes Stefannson.
Amongst his scalps was grandmaster Alberto David (Lux). Update: Final zonal scores:
Daire McMahon 2/11, Joe Ryan 4.5/11.
9/10/00

Malahide Chess Club's Blitz Team Tournament takes place on
September 14th at 7.30pm. Entry fee is £15 per team of six players
(aggregate grading not to exceed 10,000). Venue: St Sylvester's GAA Club,
Church Rd, Malahide, Co. Dublin. Contact: Tom O'Sullivan, ph:8453502.
27/8/00

Kilkenny 2000, prelimary announcement: The
Norkom Technologies
European Masters will take place this year on the weekend of Nov 24th-Nov 26th.
Venue: Kilkenny Castle. Rating requirements: Masters section, a minimum of
2000 FIDE (BCF 175). This year Irish players with a FIDE rating greater
than 2000 but with a present ICU rating less than 2000 may be allowed enter at
the discretion of the Tournament Director.
Other events Kilkenny Major, venue: Butler House; the James Mason Challenge,
Kilkenny Novices and Kilkenny Seniors, venue: the Club House Hotel.
Enquiries/entries to Jack Lowry 353 56 70688 or e-mail mbuckley@iol.ie (Courtesy Maurice Buckley)
27/8/00

Eamon Dunphy's weekly soccer bet has had a bad run recently
but has generated £500 profits from weekly £10 bets in 97/98 and
98/99 ... and came up last week while I was away on holiday. Doh.

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